The First Tests

Max, Lilli, and Leviathan landed in the Cosmodrome Mothyards, primary weapons locked and loaded, and ready to clean out the Fallen and what other threats may linger. Leviathan said, "Alright newbie, show me what you've got."

Max shrugged, "Um, how?"

Leviathan laughed, "You're resurrected as a Warlock! You should know how!"

Lilli nudged the Titan, "Don't be too hard on him!" Then she said, "Warlock, try throwing a Grenade." Max took a few steps forward, sighted a Vandal not too far from his position, then summoned a small void ball and tossed it at the creature, killing it. The sound of the Vandal dying attracted a small robot hovering above the ground. The void ball expanded on impact, sucking the body, the robot, and a few pebbles into the center, then it disappeared. During that time, the three Guardians felt the ground shake under their feet, but not so much as to topple them. The Warlock, however, felt these tremors more than the other two; his void energy began to drain itself into the Vortex, keeping it open. The Hunter noticed this and shouted, "CLOSE THE VORTEX!"

Max shouted back, "HOW!?"

"YOUR FIST! CLOSE YOUR FIST!"

He tried his right hand, his dominant hand, but nothing happened. Then he tried his left hand, and the Vortex Grenade collapsed. He felt the void energy that was drained return.

"Better?" she asked.

Max nodded, "Yeah."

"Alright, alright," nagged the Titan, "Let's get a move on! We have some Fallen to hunt and kill!" They ran to a far corner of the terrain, in the same area as they spawned, and went through a building that led to Dock 13. This entrance into the Dock was opposite to the entrance from the Divide. Their target was a Fallen Archon, the one that led 12 Dregs out of the hole to avenge their comrades.

Archons are high-ranking Fallen that usually act as a go-between the political power-hungry Kells and the mechanical god-like Servitors. Archons are very religious to their Servitors, especially their Prime Servitor. But ironically, it is not the Archons that lead Fallen into battle, it's the Servitors. It would be wrong to assume that the Servitors do this out of kindness, whereas the real reason lies in the important rituals that the Archons perform on Dregs, Vandals, and Captains.

If a Vandal disgraced the house in any way, it is the Archon's duty to dock the Vandal's lower 2 arms in front of the whole house. However, there are rituals based on success too, such as the promotion from Dreg to Vandal, Vandal to Captain, and then Captain to Archon, the latter of which is mediated by the Archon Priest with the Kell as a witness. The only time where an Archon can ascend to Priesthood is when the current Archon Priest dies. This ritual is regulated by the Prime Servitor itself, all of the Archons in a Fallen House are lined up in front for everyone to see. At the climax of the ceremony, the Prime Servitor selects an Archon to be their next Priest, and everyone celebrates this with more ether in their lungs and bellies full of meat.

The three Guardians entered Dock 13 and began shooting up the Dregs on the ground. The Archon reeled from his position at the far entrance and growled at the Guardians. It fired 4 blasts from its shrapnel launcher, a large weapon capable of firing molten bolts of scrap at anything that crosses its path. Max tried to dodge out of the way, but a molten bolt ripped through his left arm, leaving a huge gash near his shoulder. He screamed in agony, unable to move his arm at all. The Hunter aimed her hand cannon at the Archon and fired 6 shots into its head. The Archon whirled around to face Lilli but was stopped when Leviathan punctured the Archon in the leg with a shotgun shell. The Archon howled and smacked Leviathan away and into a wall, damaging his armor. Max, still in pain from the gash in his arm, clenched his fist, stood up, and faced the Archon with all the strength he could muster. He generated a Vortex Grenade in his right hand, but he didn't release it. Instead, he shoved it into his other hand, trying to expand the Vortex to astronomical proportions with both hands. His major challenge was overcoming the pain from the gash, but when he was done, Max shouted, "HEY UGLY!"

The Archon turned and snarled at the Warlock.

The Hunter and Titan stared at Max, "Oh! My! Traveler!" And ducked for cover.

The Archon charged at Max, but it was too late; the Vortex Grenade had grown into a Nova Bomb, and Max launched it straight at the Archon. The massive Void explosion knocked Max back into a wall, cracking his skull. The Archon was also thrown back, but into the opposite wall, its armor shattered and the horned mask fractured, mysterious gas hissing out through the cracks in the armor. The Archon coughed and wheezed, scurrying back into the hole it slunk out of.

Max's Ghost rezzed Max, and the Warlock sprang back into action. "We need to pursue!"

"No!" cried Lilli, "We can't fit in there!"

Leviathan snapped, "So you're just going to let it get away!? Let that thing get strong enough to ravage the Cosmodrome and our City!?"

"No! That thing has gone back to its nesting ground, where we won't be able to survive!"

"Why, Lilli!? Why should we listen to you!?"

Max answered with, "Because that gas, or whatever that was inside its armor, is most likely poisonous."

Leviathan scoffed, "To you, maybe, but I-"

"Say it, Leviathan! You're a robot! You don't need air! Go squeeze yourself down that hole and to us that you can do it!"

Leviathan clenched his fists firmly, then tried launching himself down the Archon's hole, but failed past his waist. "Oof! Um, a little help?" his voice faintly echoed.

Lilli tugged on Leviathan's legs sticking out of the hole, and tried to pull him out. "Umph! You really are stuck!"

"No! Push me down!"

Max filled his hands with the Void, and pushed on Leviathan's feet. The Void exploded, propelling the Titan down the tubes for a long time.

"WAAAAAAAUUUUUGH! TOO FAST! TOO FAST! TOO FAAAAAAST!!" Then there was a loud 'CLUNK!' followed by Leviathan echoing, "I'm alright! I'll be fine down here!"

"Then what will we do?" asked the Warlock.

"Go back! Go to the other side of the Cosmodrome, to the Skywatch! Kill all of the Fallen there!"

"Will do." Max drew his scout rifle and rushed back to the Mothyards, the Hunter out in front of him. As soon as they reached a part of the Mothyards that was littered with rusted airplanes, Lilli and Max noticed that the Fallen Vandals were running toward the large building in the distance known as the Lunar Complex, dragging the scaredy-cat Dregs by the collars, while the Captains were busily running away. "What's got the Fallen in such a frenzy?"

Lilli shrugged, "No clue, but we have to check it out."

On their way, no Fallen tried to stop and kill them, not even to fire a single shot. One of the Captains screamed something incomprehensible at the Guardians, then just kept running away, unarmed. As soon as Max and Lilli entered the building, they slowed down, 10 Vandals stood in front of them, still as statues in fear of the Complex's doorway in front of them, the Dreg collars remained snug in their grasp. Silence flooded the air. "What now?" Max whispered.

Then a Vandal stepped forward and threw its Dreg through the door. The Dreg got scared and tried backing out, but the Vandals quickly drew arms, their message was clear: Die inside or die a coward. The Dreg growled, then walked inside, armed with nothing but a shock pistol and dagger. The other 9 Dregs were tossed one by one in a similar manner, and one by one, they walked. Silence followed afterward. Then the Dregs screamed, only 3 ran out and were shot down by the Vandals. They too walked inside, until only the Guardians remained. Max and Lilli slowly walked into the Complex, primary weapons at the ready.

A slightly dying Dreg grabbed Max by the ankle. He screamed so loud it could be heard for miles. The bloodied Dreg on the ground weakly said, "beware... beware...."

"Beware?" The Hunter asked, "Beware of what?"

The Dreg died shortly after, its hand loosened up on Max, and the Warlock pulled his leg back to his side. "I don't like this," he said, "Shouldn't we be scared too?"

The Hunter scoffed, "No, we're Guardians. We're going in."

"But the Fallen-"

"The Fallen are scared of everything! That's why they're so violent!" Together, they walked inside, walked down a hallway, and into a darkened room filled with dead Vandals.

Max pulled out his Ghost, "Can you scan this room?"

"We don't need to," he said, "look at the doors."

Max examined the metal sheet door in the far corner, "Sliced and torn apart, by a sword?" He ran his fingers across the rough edges, almost slicing his fingers, "No, by claws, long and sharp."

"Long and sharp claws?" the Ghost cried, "I hope that doesn't mean-"

Max looked at him carefully, "Doesn't mean what?"

Lilli finished picking the bodies and stepped over the sheet door. "Ugh! It's musky in here, and there's bone dust and marrow corroding the metal, too!"

The Ghost shivered in fear, "I've got a bad feeling about this." Halfway up a flight of stairs, it went from little lighting to pitch black. Ghost turned on his flashlight, and they could see some black mist rising from some marrow fungi.

A small shrill emanated from the far corner of the next pitch-black room, then it grew louder. It sounded like a million terrifying, freezing, heart-palpitating, high-pitched screams. "No, It can't be!" shouted Lilli.

Ghost said, "Yep."

Max readied his scout rifle. "What is it?"

"But it can't-" 5 skeletal zombies jumped off a platform at the far end of the room, and ran towards the Guardians like they were on a track team. "It IS," realized the Ghost, pure horror in his tone. The skeletal zombies just doubled their ranks. "IT'S THE HIVE!"

The Guardians were brought down quickly. Max felt forty claws tearing into his very flesh. He threw a vortex grenade into the ground, grabbing onto a loose sheet of metal for support, then closed his fist. The skeletons died quickly, but more of them quickly flooded the room. Lilli shouted, "Leave the Thrall!" and threw her incendiary grenade at their feet, leaving them to decay. She and Max jumped to the furthest clean platform, avoiding the fire, void, and the Thrall horde. "If there are Hive here, then there must be a lieutenant controlling this swarm, A Wizard or a Knight."

Max followed the Hunter, climbing a flight of stairs. They heard another shrill at the top, different from the fifteen screaming Thralls that rushed towards them. "The Wizard," shouted Lilianna, "Kill it!" Then she heard a low, guttural, earth-shaking growl. Alarmed, she exclaimed "A Knight!?"

Max's Ghost tried to analyze the situation, "But that's impossible! Unless-"

"We're losing time," The Warlock shouted, "Let's take them both!" The Awoken Hunter began to snipe the Wizard, and managed to critically wound it before she was chased by the Thralls. She tossed another grenade at the pursuers, and blew them all up. Max was busy trying to avoid the Knight's sword while landing a few blows from his melees. The Knight swung its sword, almost mangling Max. Lilli tried to fire at the Wizard's head, but missed, and had to deal with the incoming Thrall, with the light-armored Acolytes close behind. She drew her hand cannon, fired bullets into the horde, but the Thrall were too fast. She threw another grenade, this time burning the Thrall and the Acolytes. She landed on her two feet, charged toward the Wizard, and sliced its throat with her knife. Max, meanwhile, had snatched the Knight's sword and crushed it with the powers of the Void. The Knight now looked scared, and tried to run away, but was caught by a Nova Bomb, dissolving the rotted flesh and launching armor pieces like shrapnel.

Lilli pressed a button on her helmet, activating her comms, "Dragon leader, this is Dragon 2 reporting from the Skywatch. Come in, Dragon Leader." Silence. "Leviathan, are you there?"

Max examined the scene, taking a piece of armor from both dead lieutenants, both of which sported a strange symbol. "Ghost," he asked, "What does this symbol mean?"

The Ghost looked shocked. "That's the symbol of Spawn of Crota. That Knight and Wizard came from the Moon!"

"Spawn of Crota?" the Warlock shook it off and asked, "and these symbols?" he pointed to the symbols on the left side of the backs of the helms.

The Ghost took a good look at it. "I don't know. But maybe the Speaker can."

The Hunter finished her call, "Max?"

"Yes?"

"We have a problem..."

Max raised an eyebrow, "What is it?"

"That hole that we sent Leviathan down? It didn't lead to the Fallen..."

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Dredgen Yor waited in the battleground of the Skywatch, waiting for Omnigul. He looked at his Thorn, one more time, and noticed that it still held 9 bullets left in the chamber, and that he didn't carry any extra rounds. 'Damn. I'll need more bullets if my master demands more sacrifices.' Dredgen felt a chill in the air and grinned, "And here I was wondering if you were going to make it." He turned around and bowed before Omnigul, "I have the souls that He requires."

Omnigul grinned, "Then let's see them."

Yor removed a pouch from his satchel. Inside the pouch was a bunch of tiny soul crystals, glowing green with the souls of anyone unlucky enough to cross his path. Souls of not just people, but of Guardians and Ghosts as well. "This will suffice."

Omnigul felt the tortured souls as she levitated the crystals out of the pouch. "Yes, yes, you have done well, Dredgen. But this is not enough."

Dredgen stood in alarm, "What?"

"We need more souls, whatever we can get our hands on."

"And you will have them by the end of the week."

"NO!" Omnigul shouted, "He needs them tonight!"

Yor got aggravated, "Why tonight!? Why is he accelerating his resurrection!?What hasn't he told me!?"

"Crota has lost 2 of his high priests to a pair of Guardians!"

Yor gritted his teeth, "Impossible! No Guardian has ever killed one of Crota's lieutenants!"

Omnigul slapped Dredgen across the face, "The past no longer matters when there's an anomaly in the present! Crota has moved up the schedule! It happens now or never! Kill these Guardians and raise His soul!"